Stroke with effecting part size when imorted into Sheet cam

[Fastyankee]

The more I use Inkscape its like that Crazy girl friend. Lots of fun but crazy.
I notice that when I'm drawing a part that the stroke with effects the parts size when imported into Sheetcam.
What are you all doing to compensate for it. I notice that if Deduct the the stroke with from my dimensions that when imported into sheet cam it comes out correct.Kind of a pain in the ass. I also thought maybe I should use the kerf with as the stroke with when drawing my parts. Interested to know what is being done.

5x10 Star Lab table

[acourtjester]

I use a stroke size of about 0.004" and that works out fine you can go to 0.00" but its hard to see in Inkscape for larger parts. I would not try to compensate for the kerf in a drawing as SheetCam has that in the plan for the Plasma tool you use. Inside and outside would change if you try in Inkscape.

[adbuch]

The more I use Inkscape its like that Crazy girl friend. Lots of fun but crazy.
I notice that when I'm drawing a part that the stroke with effects the parts size when imported into Sheetcam.
What are you all doing to compensate for it. I notice that if Deduct the the stroke with from my dimensions that when imported into sheet cam it comes out correct.Kind of a pain in the ass. I also thought maybe I should use the kerf with as the stroke with when drawing my parts. Interested to know what is being done.




5x10 Star Lab table

For precise accurate dimensions, I work in Outline View with stroke width set to zero. I suppose you could also work in Normal view with stroke set to zero and fill color applied. For parts with holes and other internal features, combine the internal features first, then move to top of z stack, select both internal and external features, and "Path, Difference".

David

[adbuch]

Here is an example. Inkscape svg imported to SheetCam.
David

[adbuch]

As viewed in Outline View.
David

[Fastyankee]

Jester It’s funny you use .004 I was experimenting with .005 because lets face it plasma is not going to be much more accurate than lees than .005 thousands. Dave Jester I will experiment with the outline view. I just figured this whole stroke with effecting part size last night.
as always your help is greatly appreciated .
Dave I will be ordering some tooling soon for my Pullmax .

[adbuch]

I was experimenting with .005 because lets face it plasma is not going to be much more accurate than lees than .005 thousands.

Here is a part I cut from 11 ga. CR steel on my Plasmacam DHC2. As drawn it is a 4.750" OD x 0.750" ID part. I am holding a tolerance much better than +/- 0.005". Most brackets, plates, and other plasma cut parts really don't need this sort of precision - but I like to be able to hold these closer tolerances if I need to. For most of the CAD programs I use, the stroke is not adjustable and the dxf file will reflect the actual size the part was drawn at. For example - Design Edge, AutoCAD, Fusion 360, BricsCAD, etc. So with Inkscape, CorelDraw, AI, and some of the other "artsy" programs I like to achieve a similar result for mechanical type parts. For the artistic stuff it really doesn't matter.

David

[adbuch]

Dave I will be ordering some tooling soon for my Pullmax .

AJ - what model Pullmax do you have? And what sort of work do you intend to do with it? Most of the tooling I make is available at my Ebay store linked to below. The prices at my website are not current.

David

[adbuch]

For those not familiar with a "Pullmax" machine, here is a video showing some of the operations that can be performed. Inkscape or similar cad programs can be used to draw up the profiles for machining specialized dies used to create some of these custom shapes and panels.
David

[acourtjester]

Thanks for posting the video, really neat to see parts being shaped but people who know how to use the tools.

[Fastyankee]

Dave I have the Woodard Hot Rod Power hammer.It takes the same tooling as a Pulmax. I have been to your site and know your tooling is top notch.
Thank you for the help with Cad Cam. I build off road Baja's and VW cars. After using a Bead roller for years I found the Power hammer way better on making panels and profiles. I work mostly with 18g. I'm still trying to working on the Stroke effecting my drawings. Totally not use to that.

[acourtjester]

Fast Yankee the reason I use 0.004" in inkscape is to be able to see the drawing on the monitor screen. As David pointed out you can use a stroke of 0.000" and it will show up in SheetCan saved in both DXF or SVG file format.

[adbuch]

Dave I have the Woodard Hot Rod Power hammer.It takes the same tooling as a Pulmax.

That is one I had not heard of before. I have seen Woodward Fab planishing hammers, but didn't know they were selling a power hammer. It sort of reminds me of the Proline mini-Max benchtop unit, but a about 1/3 the price. And it looks like it comes with quite a bit of tooling as well. I checked out the website - not much information about it as far as technical specs - it doesn't say what the shank sizes are that I can see. The Pullmax machines use a variety of shank size - depending on the particular machine. The most common sizes for sheet metal work are probably 19mm and 16mm.
David

[adbuch]

Fast Yankee the reason I use 0.004" in inkscape is to be able to see the drawing on the monitor screen. As David pointed out you can use a stroke of 0.000" and it will show up in SheetCan saved in both DXF or SVG file format.

Tom - I agree that using a stroke width setting of something like 0.004" makes it easy to not get confused when working in Normal Viewing mode, and for most stuff it really doesn't matter. The zero stroke width setting would really only be of benefit for mechanical type parts where you are attempting to draw to the actual dimensional size - much like if you were using a real CAD drawing program (AutoCAD, Bricscad, etc.).

David